Domain auctions : If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again

As an active domain investor, I maximize my domain portfolio’s potential by offering it on select domain auction venues.

In recent months, a small, hand-curated group of domains has been auctioned at NameJet, a venue that I’ve been using since 2007.

What’s interesting about these auctions, is that they performed extremely well despite a previous run that produced minimal results.

The domain group was approximately the same; I modified some reserve prices upwards while decreasing others.

At the time of the first run, NameJet faced some issues with the auction countdown clock. I indicated that many domain auction participants at NameJet, myself included, do not rely on email notices about closing auctions.

Being able to accurately tell how much time is left until the end of the auction via the live countdown is of extreme importance. The glitch coincided with such auctions that had bids but without the counters indicating how much time was left, many bids were not placed, in my opinion.

NameJet has a new support ticket system, that works well. This is a big improvement, particularly as NameJet increased its volume of domains being auctioned.

Overall, I am very pleased with the ability to tap into NameJet’s reach to domain investors, who are looking to acquire quality domains in an open auction fashion.

While not all domains get to sell, it’s also a good test to gauge trends in how domainers bid; some familiar bidders are known to be frugal, while others, such as Frank Schilling, utilize technology to their advantage.

When the results of a domain auction aren’t what you’d expect, make sure you check the circumstances and try again, tweaking whatever is needed; you might be pleasantly surprised.